Banks Report Lending Slows as Corporate Borrowers Pay Down Debt

The largest U.S. banks are reporting a slowdown in lending.

Bank of America and PNC were the latest to do so, with the former reporting Tuesday (April 16) that lending was “sluggish” and the latter saying its lending dropped 1%, the Financial Times (FT) reported Tuesday.

With their earnings reports released Tuesday, they joined three other top banks — Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo — that reported drops in lending among their first-quarter results last week, according to the report.

The report attributed the slowdown in lending to corporate borrowers choosing to pay down their debt amid high interest rates.

Bank of America executives said during a Tuesday earnings call that they did not see the trend as a sign that the economy is worsening. Instead, they said, consumer spending remained healthy and corporate customers chose to pay down debt.

Read more at PYMNTS.COM

The salary a single person needs to live comfortably in every U.S. state

Asingle person will need to earn over six figures to live comfortably in the most expensive U.S. states, a SmartAsset analysis reveals.

"Comfortable" is defined as the monthly income needed to cover a 50/30/20 budget, which allocates 50% of your earnings for necessities like housing and utility costs, 30% for discretionary spending and 20% for savings or investments.

The income needed for each state was extrapolated based on the cost of necessities, using data from the MIT Living Wage Calculator.

Here's a look at the five most-costly states for single workers, based on how much money residents would need to earn each year to live comfortably.

Massachusetts: $116,022

Hawaii: $113,693

California: $113,651

New York: $111,738

Read more at CNBC

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The Best Place To Live on a $100,000 Salary in Every State

Is there anywhere you can live in the United States where a $100,000 salary goes the distance? The answer is yes as there's a city in every state where a $100,000 salary allows for comfortable living.

GOBankingRates analyzed data from several sources, including AreaVibes, Sperling's Best Places and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, to compile the best places to live on a $100,000 salary in each state. Factors assessed included each city's livability score, median household incomes and the total annual cost of necessities. 

Read on to find out which cities are best for a $100,000 salary in every state.

Read more at GOBankingRates

How credit card companies make money

Key takeaways

• Credit card companies generate most of their income through interest charges, cardholder fees and transaction fees paid by businesses that accept credit cards.
• Even if you don't pay fees or interest, using your credit card generates income for your issuer thanks to interchange — or swipe — fees.
• You can minimize fees and interest payments with responsible card use, including timely payments, avoiding cash advances and understanding your card’s terms and conditions.

You’re probably familiar with some cardholder-facing credit card fees, but those are just one way that credit card companies make money. Credit card companies actually make their money from three primary sources: credit card interest, cardholder fees and transaction processing fees.

Read more at BANKRATE

Understanding Compliance Opportunities and Challenges in BuyNowPayLater: PAYLIANCE

A McKinsey survey conducted last year found that about 60 percent of consumers were likely to use point-of-sale financing over the next six to 12 months. That’s a remarkable number for what was once considered a relatively small niche of the consumer financing market. It is also an indication of just how influential Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) services have been on consumer preferences and behaviors.

The growth in BNPL has been driven primarily by the rise of Pay-in-4 services. In fact, Pay-in-4 and BNPL have become practically synonymous in some quarters. Pay-in-4 has not only attracted the lion’s share of the media attention but also major investments. As this model continues to grow, we are likely to see consolidation with the largest providers leveraging their scale to strengthen relationships with merchants and consumers to create barriers to entry for new providers.

But it’s important to recognize that the BNPL market is broader than Pay-in-4. It encompasses POS financing, rent-to-own, and vertically focused services, all of which can provide similar benefits as Pay-in-4 to consumers and merchants while offering the extended installment terms that enable the use of the model with higher-ticket items.

Read more at Payliance

The Poorest Town in Every State in America

The United States is home to nearly 40% of the world’s millionaires, according to a report from Credit Suisse, a Zurich-based investment bank. However, in a country with one of the largest gaps in wealth inequality, many Americans do not have access to this prosperity. As the middle class diminishes, the number of communities characterized by limited economic opportunity and widespread financial hardship grows. (Here is a look at the county with the least expensive housing market in every state.)

These communities tend to share several common characteristics. Education, for example, has long been linked with higher earning potential and upward economic mobility, but in every town on this list, residents are far less likely than the typical American to have gone to college. Nationwide, about 35% of adults have a bachelor’s degree or higher. In most of these towns, the bachelor’s degree attainment rate is less than half that. (Here is a look at the colleges with the most upward mobility.)

Using five-year estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2022 American Community Survey, 24/7 Wall St. identified the poorest town in each state. We considered any city, town, or unincorporated community with populations between 1,000 and 25,000 people and ranked them by median household income. The typical household earns between $28,900 and $71,100 less than the state’s annual median household income. 

Read more at 24/7 Wall Street

Co-Borrower Vs. Co-Signer: What's The Difference?

In general, borrowers are required to meet strict income and credit criteria to obtain a loan. Many struggle to meet these requirements without some help, due to poor credit or other financial setbacks.

There are two primary methods to help someone else get a loan: co-signing and co-borrowing. “Both co-signers and co-borrowers are legally obligated to make the loan payments if the other person fails to do so and can be sued by the lender if the other person fails to make payments,” explains Jesse Little, senior director of advice, at Wells Fargo Wealth and Investment Management in Palm Beach, Fla. It’s also important to note that both the co-signer and co-borrower can sustain damage to their credit history if the other borrower is late in making payments or misses payments entirely, Little says.

Read more at TIME

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43% of eCommerce Execs Say Two-Factor Authentication Can Mitigate Fraud

It’s imperative for eCommerce merchants serving international markets to be able to complete frictionless cross-border transactions. However, since these merchants must also fend off fraudsters, they must find and employ fraud prevention tools that do not disrupt consumer transactions. 

When compiling “Fraud Management in Online Transactions,” a collaboration with Nuvei, PYMNTS Intelligence found that 82% of U.S. eCommerce merchants with international sales suffered cyber or data breaches last year, which — for 47% of them — resulted in both lost customers and revenue. In fact, 68% of eCommerce merchants told us that balancing security needs with the need to keep customers satisfied has proven to be a challenge. 

Consequently, 95% of the merchants we surveyed told us they have either already enhanced the their anti-fraud capabilities or they are planning to do so soon. 

Read more at PYMNTS.COM